Iosad, Pavel

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     Edinburgh Research Explorer                                      In defence of Richness of the Base: context-free weight in WelshCitation for published version:Iosad, P 2012, 'In defence of Richness of the Base: context-free weight in Welsh' Paper presented atDecennium: the first 10 years of CASTL, Tromso, Norway, 12/09/12 - 14/09/12, .Link:Link to publication record in Edinburgh Research ExplorerDocument Version:Author final version (often known as postprint)Publisher Rights Statement:© Iosad, P. (2012). In defence of Richness of the Base: context-free weight in Welsh. Paper presented atDecennium: the first 10 years of CASTL, Tromso, Norway.General rightsCopyright for the publications made accessible via the Edinburgh Research Explorer is retained by the author(s)and / or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing these publications that users recognise andabide by the legal requirements associated with these rights.Take down policyThe University of Edinburgh has made every reasonable effort to ensure that Edinburgh Research Explorercontent complies with UK legislation. If you believe that the public display of this file breaches copyright pleasecontact openaccess@ed.ac.uk providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately andinvestigate your claim.Download date: 20. Feb. 2015..In defence of Richness of the Base: context-ee weight inWelshPavel IosadUniversitetet i Tromsø/CASTLpavel.iosad@uit.noCASTL DecenniumUniversitetet i Tromsø/CASTL14th September 2012Pavel Iosad (UiT/CASTL) In defence of Richness of the Base: context-ee weight in Welsh CLC7 1 / 26 .The argumentI Is overgeneration a big issue for substance-ee phonology?+ It dependsI How do we measure overgeneration?+ By feeding unexpected inputs to the computationI But we know that the lexicon is shaped by the phonology over time+ So how relevant is Richness of the Base aer all?I We should look at corner casesI Argument: sometimes only RotB can tell learners that their system is crazyPavel Iosad (UiT/CASTL) In defence of Richness of the Base: context-ee weight in Welsh CLC7 2 / 26.Who is aaid of Richness of the Base? Theory or fact?Richness of the what?I A fundamental principle of OT: the grammar should map all thinkableinputs to licit outputsI We cannot rely on input generalizations (i. e. ‘this pattern is unattestedbecause there are no words of the relevant form in the lexicon of thislanguage’)I Oen put forward as a solution to the ‘duplication problem’ (for which seee. g. Kenstowicz and Kisseberth 1977)Pavel Iosad (UiT/CASTL) In defence of Richness of the Base: context-ee weight in Welsh CLC7 4 / 26 .Who is aaid of Richness of the Base? Theory or fact?Opinions on Richness of the Base diﬀerI ‘ROTB is fundamental to the theory and inextricably linked with the resultsthat OT can achieve’ (McCarthy 2005)I ‘[T]he notion of Richness of the Base is a computational curiosity of OTgrammars which is irrelevant to human language’ (Hale and Reiss 2008)I ‘The proposed solution involves explicitly implementing Richness of theBase in the initialization of the lexicon […]. By relying on Richness of theBase […], the algorithm is able to use negative evidence implicitly to ﬁndrestrictive grammars’ (Jarosz 2006)Pavel Iosad (UiT/CASTL) In defence of Richness of the Base: context-ee weight in Welsh CLC7 5 / 26..Who is aaid of Richness of the Base? Mutually predictable distributionsWhat am I talking about?I Today I focus on mutually predictable distributionsI Stressed syllables in most of North Germanic (forget extrametricality)I CVː, CVCI *CV, CVːCI In classic phonemic theory, only one of consonant and vowel length is‘contrastive’I But a computation can enforce the predictable distribution of anything (allthe way to Halle 1959)Pavel Iosad (UiT/CASTL) In defence of Richness of the Base: context-ee weight in Welsh CLC7 6 / 26 .Who is aaid of Richness of the Base? Mutually predictable distributionsThe resolutionI The Contrastivist Hypothesis (Dresher, Piggott, and Rice 1994; Hall 2007;Dresher 2009) says that phonological computation operates on entities thatare used to distinguish lexical itemsI But there can well be redundancy in the lexicon!I Assume both vowel and consonant length are entities that theNorth-Germanic-minus-Danish lexicon actually allowsI The mutually predictable distribution must be enforced by the phonologyI We do need computation to weed out [CV] and [CVːC] syllablesI And as OT theorists we do face the Richness of the Base issuePavel Iosad (UiT/CASTL) In defence of Richness of the Base: context-ee weight in Welsh CLC7 7 / 26.Who is aaid of Richness of the Base? Wheat vs. chaﬀAn example II In OT, we cannot say that ‘X is contrastive and Y is derived’, if Y isphonologicalI But we can say that ‘X is reproduced faithfully and the distribution of Y isonly driven by markedness’ (cf. Flemming 2005)I Rice (2006): ranking predicts that CVCCV should surface as CVːCCVI Seems like a poor prediction: potential for [CVːCCV] wordsI Potential diachronic explanation: yes, but since the lexicon has been shapedby the outcomes of the same system, it does not contain disharmonic inputsI ‘Missed generalization’, badI Here, we’re lucky: (very few) relevant disharmonic inputs do exist and theydo give the right results, as in påskeI Similar example in Friulian (Hualde 1990; Baroni and Vanelli 2000; Iosad2012):Pavel Iosad (UiT/CASTL) In defence of Richness of the Base: context-ee weight in Welsh CLC7 8 / 26 .Who is aaid of Richness of the Base? Wheat vs. chaﬀAn example III Stressed vowels lengthen before all underlyingly voiced obstruents, alwaysremain short before voiceless onesI Solution in Iosad (2012) requires /CVːT/ to surface faithfullyI Which it does in a very few words thanks to etymological happenstanceMoralRichness of the Base is important, but don’t be too trigger-happy with ‘itovergenerates!’Pavel Iosad (UiT/CASTL) In defence of Richness of the Base: context-ee weight in Welsh CLC7 9 / 26..Context-ee weight in Welsh The argumentDealing with crazy patternsI I am going to discuss a particularly complicated example om WelshI Two alternatives for the analysisI Relatively simple computation) huge holes in the lexiconI Satising Richness of the Base) factorial typology painI Tentative proposal: at some point learners give up on Richness of the Baseand accept lexical holes, which in turn allows seepage of disharmonic inputsPavel Iosad (UiT/CASTL) In defence of Richness of the Base: context-ee weight in Welsh CLC7 11 / 26 .Context-ee weight in Welsh Weight in South WelshSouth WelshI Data om Awbery (1984, 1986)I Vowel length only allowed in stressed syllablesI Complicated distribution of vowel length depending on the followingconsonantI Three interacting factors: vowel length, consonant length, consonantquality (also vowel quality, but that does seem to be phonetics)I Contrastive length before single [n l r]I Consonants following short stressed vowels are lengthened⑴a. [ˈkaˑnol] canol ‘middle’b. [ˈanˑer] anner ‘heifer’Pavel Iosad (UiT/CASTL) In defence of Richness of the Base: context-ee weight in Welsh CLC7 12 / 26.Context-ee weight in Welsh Weight in South WelshSouth Welsh cont’dI Otherwise, length is fully predictableI Short before consonant clustersI Otherwise length is determined by the quality of the following consonantI Shading means preceding vowel is short⑵ p t k s ʃ ɬ f θ χ b d ɡ v ð m ŋ n l r w jI Lack of contrast: coerced weight (Morén 2001)I We know that coerced weight generally follows the sonority hierarchy (Zec1988, 1995; Morén 2001; de Lacy 2006)Pavel Iosad (UiT/CASTL) In defence of Richness of the Base: context-ee weight in Welsh CLC7 13 / 26 .Context-ee weight in Welsh Weight in South WelshHow do we know all of these are phonological?I Vowel length: minimal pairs in monosyllables (no consonant lengthcontrast described)I Consonant length: minimal pairs such as those in ⑴+ Cannot fully derive om vowel length, because that does not always mapfaithfully⑶ a. [ˈpeːɬ] pell ‘far’b. [ˈpeɬˑaχ] pellach ‘further’I Consonant quality: obviously phonological, not derivable om length(contrast Carlyle 1988)Pavel Iosad (UiT/CASTL) In defence of Richness of the Base: context-ee weight in Welsh CLC7 14 / 26..Context-ee weight in Welsh Weight in South WelshThe paradox and a possible solutionI The paradox: the distribution of morae is due to a ranking of *μ constraintsthat always prefers more sonorous segments to be moraicI But South Welsh seems to require *μ[b d ɡ] *μ[p t k], which makes nosenseI Similar facts not unknown: Metropolitan New York English (Morén 2001),Limburg dialects (Hermans and van Oostendorp 2005)I Solution by Morén (2001): DepLink-μ[b d ɡ] *μ[p t k] *μ[b d ɡ]I DepLink is a faithfulness constraint and does not care about sonorityPavel Iosad (UiT/CASTL) In defence of Richness of the Base: context-ee weight in Welsh CLC7 15 / 26 .Context-ee weight in Welsh The rich base to the rescueThe problemI DepLink-μ cannot enforce an unfaithful mappingI Theoretical input /ebμol/ should map to *[ebol] (contrast [ˈeːbol] ‘foal’)I Rich base problem!Am I being too trigger-happy?I No: under otherwise reasonable representational assumptions for Welsh,DepLink-μ[b d ɡ] also assigns a violation to [p t k] acquiring a moraI So it doesn’t work anywayPavel Iosad (UiT/CASTL) In defence of Richness of the Base: context-ee weight in Welsh CLC7 16 / 26.Context-ee weight in Welsh The rich base to the rescueSolutionI Not enough time for the gory details…I Workable solutions tend to have catastrophic factorial consequencesI One that works: augmentation constraints requiring certain featuralconﬁgurations to be licensed by morae irrespective of syllable position (callthem Have-μ)+ Generalize Weight by Position and add a featurally deﬁned argument:should be unobjectionable om the perspective of constraint-schemaarchitectureI Bad overgeneration: e. g. a language where all segments are moraic+ Then again the more conventional solution overgenerates too, so how canyou weigh that?Pavel Iosad (UiT/CASTL) In defence of Richness of the Base: context-ee weight in Welsh CLC7 17 / 26 .Context-ee weight in Welsh The rich base to the rescueThe corner casesI Native vocabulary too ﬁrmly shaped by history to give any cluesI Loanwords om English: many examples of disharmonic monosyllables:[ˈstroːk] ‘stroke’, [ˈled] ‘lead’+ But these borrowings can be quite egregious ([ˈɡaːrd] ‘ﬁre guard’), sopending a good account of lexical strata caution is warrantedI Problems with monosyllables:I Final consonants: rôle for extrametricality (clearly active in the language)I Underived forms: morphology?I Not at all clear what happens in penultimate syllables where the pattern ismost apparent+ Orthography suggests reversion to unmarked pattern in at least one case:gêm ‘game’, plural gemauI Further research needed (not helped by the diﬀerent pattern in NorthWelsh)Pavel Iosad (UiT/CASTL) In defence of Richness of the Base: context-ee weight in Welsh CLC7 18 / 26..Context-ee weight in Welsh The rich base to the rescueThe importance of the rich base II I suggest that the seepage of disharmonic borrowings is due to speakersgiving up on the system with the bad factorial typologyI Welsh0, without the borrowings, has existed+ Older borrowings are normally harmonicI Learners of Welsh0 were faced with a choice of unappealing alternativesI Rule out the disharmonic form in the phonology) ugly Have-μ grammarI Assume that all voiceless stops are underlyingly moraic etc. ) hugelyredundant lexiconI Assume the DepLink-μ solution) gaps in the lexicon (also it might notwork anyway)I The bad things I say about the lexicon are not necessarily bad: it’s the debrisof phonological change (Kiparsky 1995; Bermúdez-Otero 2007;Bermúdez-Otero and Trousdale, forthcoming)Pavel Iosad (UiT/CASTL) In defence of Richness of the Base: context-ee weight in Welsh CLC7 19 / 26 .Context-ee weight in Welsh The rich base to the rescueThe importance of the rich base III Good consequence for the Contrastivist Hypothesis: you can havephonological objects that are strictly speaking unnecessary to implementcontrast (‘redundant’) but still present in the lexicon, and therefore availableto the computation+ In fact you expect this sort of redundancy to be therePavel Iosad (UiT/CASTL) In defence of Richness of the Base: context-ee weight in Welsh CLC7 20 / 26.Context-ee weight in Welsh The rich base to the rescueThe rôle of grammar in language changeI Grammatical change that does not appear to be inﬂuenced by externalconsiderations such as imperfect learningI The trade-oﬀ: unconstrained grammar vs. unconstrained lexicon (isn’t italways?)I But these questions can only be asked if Richness of the Base issues aresomething learners attend toI So: it might not be completely useless aer allI Contribution to a theory of diachrony, important for substance-eephonology because diachrony is another ﬁlter for deriving attestable (asopposed to computable) languagesI Bonus: the existence of grammatically driven sound change presupposes aphonological grammarDiolch yn fawr!Pavel Iosad (UiT/CASTL) In defence of Richness of the Base: context-ee weight in Welsh CLC7 21 / 26 .Context-ee weight in Welsh The rich base to the rescueReferences IAwbery, Gwenllian M. 198⒋ Phonotactic constraints in Welsh. In Welsh phonology:Selected readings, ed. Martin J. Ball and Glyn E. Jones, 65–10⒋ Cardiﬀ: Universityof Wales Press.———. 198⒍ Pembrokeshire Welsh: a phonological study. Llandysul: Welsh FolkMuseum.Baroni, Marco, and Laura Vanelli. 2000. The relationship between vowel length andconsonantal voicing in Friulian. In Phonological theory and the dialects of Italy, ed.Lori Repetti, 13–4⒋ Current Issues in Linguistic Theory 2⒓ Amsterdam: JohnBeǌamins.Bermúdez-Otero, Ricardo. 200⒎ Diachronic phonology. In The Cambridge handbook ofphonology, ed. Paul de Lacy, 497–5⒙ Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Pavel Iosad (UiT/CASTL) In defence of Richness of the Base: context-ee weight in Welsh CLC7 22 / 26..Context-ee weight in Welsh The rich base to the rescueReferences IIBermúdez-Otero, Ricardo, and Graeme Trousdale. forthcoming. Cycles and continua: onunidirectionality and gradualness in language change. In Handbook on the history ofEnglish: rethinking approaches to the history of English, ed. Terttu Nevalainen andElizabeth Closs Traugott. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Carlyle, Karen Ann. 198⒏ A syllabic phonology of Breton. PhD diss., University ofToronto.De Lacy, Paul. 200⒍ Markedness: reduction and preservation in phonology. Cambridge:Cambridge University Press.Dresher, B. Elan. 200⒐ The contrastive hierarchy in phonology. Cambridge: CambridgeUniversity Press.Dresher, B. Elan, Glyne Piggott, and Keren Rice. 199⒋ Contrast in phonology:overview. Toronto Working Papers in Linguistics 14:iii–xvii.Flemming, Edward. 200⒌ Deriving natural classes in phonology. Lingua 115 ⑶:287–30⒐Pavel Iosad (UiT/CASTL) In defence of Richness of the Base: context-ee weight in Welsh CLC7 23 / 26 .Context-ee weight in Welsh The rich base to the rescueReferences IIIHale, Mark, and Charles Reiss. 200⒏ The phonological enterprise. Oxford: OxfordUniversity Press.Hall, Daniel Currie. 200⒎ The role and representation of contrast in phonologicaltheory. PhD diss., University of Toronto.Halle, Morris. 195⒐ The sound pattern of Russian: a linguistic and acoustical investigation.’s Gravenhage: Mouton.Hermans, Ben, and Marc van Oostendorp. 200⒌ Against the sonority scale: evidenceom Frankish tones. In Organizing grammar: studies in honor of Henk vanRiemsdĳk, ed. Hans Broekhuis, Norbert Corver, Riny Huĳbregts,Ursula Kleinhenz, and Jan Koster, 206–22⒈ Studies in Generative Grammar 8⒍Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.Hualde, Jose Ignacio. 1990. Compensatory lengthening in Friulian. Probus 2:31–4⒍Iosad, Pavel. 20⒓ Final devoicing and vowel lengthening in Friulian: a representationalapproach. Lingua 122 ⑻: 922–95⒈Pavel Iosad (UiT/CASTL) In defence of Richness of the Base: context-ee weight in Welsh CLC7 24 / 26.Context-ee weight in Welsh The rich base to the rescueReferences IVJarosz, Gaja. 200⒍ Richness of the base and probabilistic unsupervised learning inOptimality Theory. In Proceedings of the 8th Meeting of the ACL Special InterestGroup on Computational Phonology and Morphology, 50–5⒐ SIGPHON, ’0⒍Stroudsburg, PA: Association for Computational Linguistics.Joseph, Brian R., and Richard D. Janda, eds. 200⒊ The handbook of historical linguistics.Oxford: Blackwell.Kenstowicz, Michael, and Charles Kisseberth. 197⒎ Topics in phonological theory. NewYork: Academic Press.Kiparsky, Paul. 199⒌ The phonological basis of sound change. In The handbook ofphonological theory, ed. John Goldsmith, 640–670. Also published in Joseph andJanda (2003), 313–34⒉ Oxford: Blackwell.McCarthy, John J. 200⒌ The length of stem-ﬁnal vowels in Colloquial Arabic. InPerspectives on Arabic linguistics XVII–XVIII, ed. Mohammad T. Alhawary andElabbas Benmamoun, 1–2⒍ Amsterdam: John Beǌamins.Pavel Iosad (UiT/CASTL) In defence of Richness of the Base: context-ee weight in Welsh CLC7 25 / 26 .Context-ee weight in Welsh The rich base to the rescueReferences VMorén, Bruce. 200⒈ Distinctiveness, coercion, and sonority: a uniﬁed theory of weight.London, New York: Routledge.Rice, Curt. 200⒍ Norwegian stress and quantity: the implications of loanwords. Lingua116 ⑺: 1171–119⒋Zec, Draga. 198⒏ Sonority constraints on prosodic structure. PhD diss., StanfordUniversity.———. 199⒌ The role of moraic structure in the distribution of segments withinsyllables. In Frontiers of phonology: atoms, structures, derivations, ed. Jacques Durandand Francis Katamba, 149–17⒐ Harlow, Essex: Longman.Pavel Iosad (UiT/CASTL) In defence of Richness of the Base: context-ee weight in Welsh CLC7 26 / 26

In defence of Richness of the Base: context-free weight in Welsh

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